Scouts sued over sex case in Polk Township

Saturday

Feb 16, 2013 at 12:01 AM

The accuser in a former Bethlehem schoolteacher's molestation case is suing the Boy Scouts of America and its local chapter, the Minsi Trails Council, over an incident that allegedly occurred at a Polk Township Scout camp.

PRECIOUS PETTY

The accuser in a former Bethlehem schoolteacher's molestation case is suing the Boy Scouts of America and its local chapter, the Minsi Trails Council, over an incident that allegedly occurred at a Polk Township Scout camp.

In a Lehigh County lawsuit filed Friday, attorney Mark K. Altemose alleges the organizations' negligent and reckless failures allowed Gregory Ritter to groom his client for sexual abuse and then molest him on multiple occasions in 2008.

The Boy Scouts and Minsi Trails, which serves Scouts in the Lehigh Valley and western New Jersey, had policies in place to protect youngsters from abuse, including one that forbids adults to be alone with Scouts, but did not enforce them, the suit says. Altemose's client is suing the organizations for compensatory and punitive damages.

Minsi Trails Scout Executive and CEO Craig Poland declined to comment on the suit because he had not seen it Friday afternoon, but issued a prepared statement.

"We extend our deepest sympathies to those involved. The Boy Scouts of America take the protection of our youth members very seriously, and we were one of the first youth programs to develop youth protection policies and education," he said.

"We have continuously enhanced our multi-tiered policies and procedures, which now include background checks, comprehensive training programs, and safety policies, like requiring all members to report even suspicions of abuse directly to local law enforcement."

The accuser was a 14-year-old counselor-in-training at the Boy Scouts' Settlers Camp at Trexler Scout Reservation in Polk Township, where Ritter served as a first-aid supervisor when the alleged abuse occurred. The teen met Ritter at the camp, also known as Camp Trexler.

Ritter was an East Hills Middle School teacher in the Bethlehem Area School District when Pennsylvania State Police in February 2009 charged him with sexually assaulting the Lehigh County teen, who is now 18. Authorities say the molestation occurred on three occasions at Ritter's Pike County cabin.

Ritter, 45, committed suicide in January 2010 outside Village Court Apartments in Canadensis a day before jury selection was slated to begin in his trial.

Ritter was the sole occupant of the camp's first-aid cabin, where he was in charge of dispensing prescribed medication to Scouts, the suit says. The accuser required medication and so made daily trips to the cabin, the suit said.

It was during these one-on-one interactions that Ritter began grooming the teen for future sexual abuse, Altemose said.

The Boy Scouts touted policies and mandatory training they'd instituted to protect children from sexual predators, but didn't follow through with them, he said. That Ritter was the only person assigned to sleep in the first-aid cabin meant that he'd almost certainly be alone with Scouts, for example, Altemose noted.

Ritter allegedly questioned the teen about his past sexual experiences, told him it was OK to have sexual fantasies about other boys and described sexual activities he'd engaged in with a Scout who'd visited Settlers Camp in the past.

The suit says Ritter would allow the teen to sleep in the first-aid cabin, waking him early in the morning so he could secretly return to his tent. He also allowed the boy to shower in his cabin and showed him pornographic movies, providing snacks normally unavailable to Scouts., the suit said.

"(Ritter) did all of these things while they were at Camp Trexler. By the end of his stay, he was under his spell," Altemose said.